Potassium in Vegan Diets: Less Kale, More Beans?

It’s not surprising that vegetarians and vegans tend to have higher intakes of potassium compared to omnivores. One simple dietary change—replacing the meat in a recipe with any type of beans—can give potassium intake a healthy boost.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that we vegans always get enough, though. In fact, while it’s far easier to meet needs on a plant-based diet, it’s really a challenge to consume the recommended 4700 milligrams of potassium on any kind of diet. In the Adventist Health-2 study, there was a wide range of potassium intakes among vegans, suggesting that some were on the low side.

Potassium is another of those nutrients where you won’t be staggering around with deficiency symptoms if you aren’t getting enough. Low intake does its damage over time, raising risk for heart disease, hypertension and bone loss.

So why might some vegans fall short? Favoring grains over legumes could be one reason. Potassium is another big reason that I like to emphasize legumes in my diet. Beans are among the very best of all potassium sources. One-half cup of cooked beans provides between 240 and 475 milligrams of potassium compared to 40 to 160 milligrams for ½ cup of cooked grains.

Again, whole grains are wonderful foods, but don’t let them crowd out beans and starchy vegetables like potatoes and sweet potatoes ( which are also good sources of potassium.)

The vegan kale craze could be another reason for suboptimal potassium intakes. We vegans love our cruciferous veggies—kale, collards, broccoli, and bok choy—in part because they are excellent sources of calcium. But, they are quite a bit lower in potassium than other greens like spinach and chard.

I’m not suggesting that you stop eating kale (vegan sacrilege!). It’s just a good idea to remember the rule of variety when it comes to fruits and vegetables. You need calcium-rich choices, but you need ones that are rich in potassium as well. Although I usually eat cruciferous vegetables for dinner, I aim for the potassium-rich ones in my other meals. I almost always have a potassium-packed soup in my fridge, made with beans, spinach and tomatoes—three potassium superstars. It makes a great afternoon snack.

Use the list below to guide you toward a diet that is rich in potassium. It doesn’t mean you need to avoid the low-potassium foods, which are here for comparison. They have their own benefits. But make sure you eat plenty of potassium-rich foods every day to protect bone and heart health.

23 Responses to Potassium in Vegan Diets: Less Kale, More Beans?

Thank you for yet another thoughtful, informative post. I noticed that soybeans and edamame are listed separately on the potassium breakdown. Why is that? Do soybeans represent a different stage (whether in terms of fermentation or any other variable) of the legume than edamame?

Thank you for this post! I’ve been wondering potassium, since I often fall a little short when I track my intake, even though I eat lots of veggies and legumes and not a lot of grains. I use a lower sodium type of salt with extra potassium now (also enriched with iodine). Is that a good way to supplement my intake?

I think using small amounts of supplemental potassium is probably fine, but as always, getting it from food is much better! There are lots of other things in fruits, vegetables and beans that are good for bones and muscles and that you won’t get from a supplement.

Interesting! I thought I’ve read somewhere that the potassium guidelines are actually not based on much science, because it’s heavily dependent on how much sodium you consume (there needs to be balance). I’m guessing that many vegans consume less sodium than the average population so that could mean that the recommended potassium is lower? In the Netherlands, we don’t even have a recommended amount for potassium; it seems to be the working assumption that only the worst of junk-food diets could result in a deficiency of this mineral because it is available in almost every veggie, fruit, grain and bean.

I think it’s a common misconception that the only vegans who are likely to fall short of nutrients are those eating “junk food vegan diets.” You can eat a whole foods plant-based diet and still fall short if your diet is too low in beans and you aren’t including potassium-rich vegetables.

The exact requirement for potassium isn’t really understood so it’s hard to know which is the more correct requirement. I’d aim for the higher amount until we have better information. The foods that provide potassium are so healthy that there is no down side to eating more of them!

Theoretically, there are dozens of micronutrients linked to good health that we should be aiming for more of. But I find that it all gets back to a few simple principles. Trying to aim to eat certain foods to get enough of ‘X’ (where X = calcium, potassium, etc) is really a fruitless approach to health. I am trying to vary my diet a bit and not worry too much about what it might be missing. I simply cannot get 100% of the RDA or RI for every nutrient every single day – I would end up overeating, which is not good either.

Re: kale. The one time I tried it, I ended up with 5 days of severe diarrhea. Apparently gastrointestinal intolerance to kale is not totally rare, and at least on the internet, it is well documented. I don’t know what the underlying pathophysiology is – whether it’s an immunological phenomenon (allergic response) or something in kale that is toxic to certain people (as wheat is to celiac patients). But I will never, ever eat kale again. So that’s one crucifer to cross off my to-do list…

Dan, did you eat kale raw? I don’t know why this rage for eating kale all of a sudden making it the latest “fashion”, but they are serving it raw and this may have something to do with digestion problems? I never tried it raw because I feel it’s too tough a veggie unless cooked, but I don’t think it may taste very appealingly either…..

Of course, you could have Swiss Chard, spinach, etc. which are much softer and might not affect your digestive system?

Thank you for your very helpful article! My medical clearance for a surgery shows “abnormal potassium” and must retake the test. So thanks to your info I’ll be sure before my retest, to eat from many foods on the list. And since I already had made a paste of beans to try some fancy vegan dish, I will instead mix it with tomatoes and spinach and olive oil and…skip any salt!

My question: should spinach be raw or cooked? And which of the 2 methods would render more potassium milligrams? Ditto for the tomatoes (though I like the latter raw)… :o)

1. Aren’t some fruits a good source of potassium? If it is the case, what are the best?
2. It seems like to meet your potassium needs you need to be eating a lot of things, doesn’t that impact your overall calories?

My partner has the opposite problem and needs to severely restrict the amount of potassium he consumes. This has proven to be extremely difficult and limiting on a vegan diet. He has/is recovering from CHF and the medications that are helping his heart also make it so that his body holds onto potassium which hurts his heart, makes him extremely tired, and causes muscle soreness. The list you provided is helpful, in the opposite way. We are really hopeful that we can make this work for him as we are both ethical vegans and have been for the last ten years. This makes it really hard though. Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks for your site, it is so informative and I use it often!

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